Trump ponders space in strange ceremony
President signs executive order, says ‘it could be infinity’
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s ceremony Friday to bring back the National Space Council began to confuse people even before it took place.
It was, Trump would say, a big deal: an executive order to resurrect an advisory council that kick-started the first moon missions 60 years ago, went dormant in the 1990s, and could now lead astronauts into deep space — even Mars.
“At some point in the future, we’re going to look back and say how did we do it without space?” is how the president put it.
Yet the signing surprised many: The White House had not listed the ceremony on the president’s calendar, no one from NASA headquarters came, and the only female astronaut in attendance was left off the thankyou list. An astronaut ignored
Not to mention the president’s sometimes baffling remarks about the cosmos.
Vice President Mike Pence, who will chair the new space council, introduced the president and others.
“Especially the three American astronauts,” he said, listing NASA’s Alvin Drew, former astronaut David Wolf, and “the second man on the moon: the legendary Buzz Aldrin.”
“Welcome to the White House,” Pence said.
But he didn’t mention the former astronaut standing about 5 feet away — Sandy Magnus.
Trump would also name the three male astronauts without mentioning Magnus, an omission quickly noticed in the wider space community.
Magnus didn’t seem put out, though. She wrote Saturday on Twitter that she had attended the ceremony as executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, and hadn’t been wearing a NASA uniform like two of the men.
Trump is a known space aficionado, who once phoned astronauts in orbit and asked them to hurry up and get to Mars.
“Our travels beyond the Earth propel scientific discoveries that improve our lives in countless ways here,” Trump said, listing new technology and “space security” among the benefits.
“At some point in the future, we’re going to look back and say how did we do it without space?” Trump then said, causing Aldrin’s eyebrows to shoot up. An incomplete council
Eyebrows across the internet would do likewise as Trump proceeded through his speech.
“The human soul yearns for discovery,” Trump said, for example. “Our journey into space will not only make us stronger and more prosperous, but will unite us behind grand ambitions and bring us all closer together.
“Wouldn’t that be nice? Can you believe that space is going to do that?”
Some who learned that Pence will chair the new council remembered that when he was a congressman, he chaired a Republican study group that recommended canceling NASA’s space exploration program to save money.
But Pence’s 2005 plan didn’t go anywhere, and Friday on Twitter he said he was “honored and frankly enthusiastic” about leading the National Space Council.
Trump assured those gathered that “Mike is very much into space.”
The advisory group will also include Cabinet secretaries, the head of NASA and other administrators — almost none of whom were at the ceremony.
Trump has not even named a NASA administrator, who will sit on the council. A reference to ‘Toy Story’
Heavyweights of the “new space” industry such as Elon Musk of SpaceX and Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin, Amazon and The Washington Post were nowhere to be seen.
Bezos and Musk had been invited, Ars Technica reported, but couldn’t make it on short notice.
“This is going to launch a whole new chapter for our great country,” Trump said near the end of his speech.
Then he sat down at a table and opened the executive order.
“I know what this is,” he said. “Space!”
Beside him, Aldrin chimed in with a quote from the astronaut character Buzz Lightyear from the movie “Toy Story.”
“Infinity and beyond!” Aldrin said. Everyone laughed. Then Trump added some lines of his own.
“This is infinity here,” he said. “It could be infinity. We don’t really don’t know. But it could be. It has to be something — but it could be infinity, right?”
Trump then signed the order and revived the National Space Council, leaving his final words on the subject a mystery.